Ponoka Town Council may hold one of its future regular meetings at the Ponoka Secondary Campus (PSC) to allow students to get a flavor of how administrative processes work and how municipal leaders carry out their functions in managing the affairs of the town.
The idea was floated by Mayor Rick Bonnett, who was present at PSC School Council’s scheduled meeting on Wednesday, Feb 26.
The council was discussing ways of involving students in its work by encouraging them to adopt and nurture leadership roles and possible avenues of rewarding them for getting involved.
Three students were also present at the council meeting and Principal Ian Rawlinson asked them to contribute to the discussion by giving ideas on students might be inspired to take on leadership roles.
The discussion also included the possibility of creating a leadership course based on the “Becoming a Community Builder” program designed by Ian Hill and purchased by the Town of Ponoka last year for both town management and residents before the municipal elections last year.
A radical shift on the way
Participants at the council meeting also heard a substantive presentation by principal Rawlinson on the visit to the High Tech High School in California and the forthcoming shift in the Alberta education scene.
Rawlinson said one of the primary motivations for their trip to California was to find an answer to what he termed “student apathy”. He explained that the idea of skipping the school appeared to be non-existent among the San Diego school’s students.
Rawlinson, in the course of his presentation, also explained a major challenge facing all pre-college schools in the province.
He said Education Alberta would require all the K-12 schools in the province to stop using the currently implemented curriculum in 17 months and instruct the implementation of a totally new education system. The new system is understood to be broadly based on the project-based education currently being implemented at PSC. (A more detailed story on the new system, Inspiring Education, is on page 17).
PSC School council will have its next meeting on April 16.